Various systems are known for supporting loads on roofs, and for installing skylights and/or smoke vents onto, into roofs.
A significant motivation for use of skylights is that the daylighting which enters the building through the skylight lenses can reduce or eliminate the need for use of electrical light fixtures during the daylight hours. Further, conventionally-known control systems can monitor the light intensity at desired, selected locations inside the building and automatically turn on selected ones of the electrical light fixtures as needed in order to maintain a desired level of light intensity at the selected locations inside the building, or selectively dim, or turn off, such light fixtures when a desired level of light intensity is being delivered through the skylights.
The benefits of using skylights to obtain daylighting include lower energy costs, less use of fossil fuels for generating electricity, and potentially less worker stress or fatigue. A significant problem associated with use of conventionally-available skylight lens assemblies is that conventionally-available skylight lens assemblies are known to have high probability of leaking during rain events.
Commonly used skylighting systems have translucent or transparent covers, also known as lenses, mounted on a support structure, commonly known as a “curb”, which is mounted to building support members inside the building and wherein such support structure extends through an opening in the roof. Ambient daylight passes through the lens and thence through the roof opening and into the building.
Thus, conventional skylight and smoke vent installations use a curb structure beneath the exterior roofing panels and inside the building enclosure, and extending through the roof structure, in order to provide a support which extends through the roof, past the roof panels, and which supports the skylight lens assembly. Conventional skylight curbs, thus, are generally in the form of a preassembled box-like structure. Such box-like structure is mounted to building framing members inside the building enclosure, and extends through a respective opening in the roof, and past the respective elongate metal roof panels. The skylight assembly thus mounts inside the building enclosure, and extends through an opening in a corresponding roof structure. Fitting skylight assemblies into such roof opening presents problems, both for the installer and for the user. A primary problem is that mentioned above, namely that all known types of installations of conventional skylight support structures have a tendency to leak water when subjected to rain.
In light of the leakage issues, there is a need for a more effective way to support skylights and smoke vents, thus to bring daylighting into buildings, as well as a more effective way to support a variety of other loads, on roofs.
To achieve desired levels of daylighting, conventional skylight installations use multiple roof openings spaced regularly about the length and width of a given roof surface through which daylighting is to be received. Each skylight lens is installed over a separate such opening.
Skylight assemblies of the invention are mounted on the ribs defined by metal roof panels of standing seam metal roofs. The skylight assemblies are raised above elongate centralized panel flats which extend the lengths of the panels, whereby rib elements at the sides of adjacent such roof panels are joined to each other in elongate joinders, referred to herein as the ribs.
The opening for a conventional skylight cuts across multiple such ribs in order to provide a wide enough opening to receive conventionally-available commercial-grade skylight assemblies. The conventional skylight assembly, itself, includes a curb which is mounted inside the building and extends, from inside the building, through the roof opening and about the perimeter of the opening, thus to support the skylight lens above the flats of the roof panels, as well as above the ribs. Flashing, and conventional pliable tube construction sealants are applied about the perimeter of the roof opening, between the roof panels and the flashing, including at the cut ribs. Typically, substantially all of such sealant is applied in the panel flats, which means that such sealant is a primary barrier to water leakage about substantially the entire perimeter of the skylight curb.
One of the causes of roof leaks around the perimeter of conventional roof curbs which attach primarily through the panel flat at the water line is due to foot traffic, such as heel loads or other dynamic loads imposed by workers wheeling gas cylinders or other heavy equipment on the roof panel e.g. with dollies. This type of dynamic loading can cause high levels of stress and/or flexing of the adjacent roof panels, adjacent the edges of the curb. Such joints between the roof panels and the curb typically rely solely on flashing and tube sealant to provide seals between the curb and the roof panels, most notably in the panel flats. Leaks are also commonly attributed to areas around fastener locations, as the panels flex under load, causing stress between the sealant and the respective curb and/or roof panels; whereby the sealant deforms such that, with repeated flexing of the sealant over time, passages develop through the sealant, which allows for the flow of water through such passages and into the building.
Such curbs, each extending through a separate roof opening, each sealed largely in the panel flats, create multiple opportunities for water to enter the interior of the building. Such opportunities include, without limitation,                (i) the number of individual openings in the roof,        (ii) the tendency of water to collect and stay at the upper end of the curb,        (iii) the disparate expansion and contraction of the roof panels relative to the skylight-supporting curb;        (iv) the lengths of sealed seams in the panel flats; and        (v) flexing of tube sealant pursuant to localized loads being exerted on roof panels adjacent a such skylight or other opening.        
The traditional curb constructions and methods of attachment in most cases thus require that a complex support structure be installed below the metal roof panels and supported from building framing structure, such as purlins, located inside the building enclosure, which allows disparate/discordant movement of the metal roof panels and the skylight assembly relative to each other, as associated with thermal expansion and contraction of the metal roof e.g. in response to differences in temperature changes outside the building relative to contemporaneous temperatures inside the building.
In addition, conventional curb-mounted skylight structures tend to collect condensation on inside surfaces of the heated space in the building.
In some known structures, water is diverted to only one side of the structure. In the case of heavy rains, it may, in some instances, be desirable to provide a support structure to divert water to both sides of the structure in order to effect faster water run-off.
In some instances, it would be desirable to provide a thermal break and/or a vapor barrier up alongside the rib and upstanding elements of the support structure in order to attenuate water vapor condensation on inside surfaces of the support structure.
In some instances, it would be desirable to provide a support structure having a combination of a thermal barrier and a vapor barrier up alongside the rib, and alongside upstanding elements of the support structure, in order to attenuate water vapor condensation on inside surfaces of the support structure, as well as to attenuate thermal conduction through the support structure.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a skylight system which provides a desired level of daylighting in a commercial and/or industrial building while substantially reducing the incidence/frequency of leaks occurring about such skylights, as well as reducing or eliminating the incidence/frequency of condensate accumulation inside the building in the areas of such skylights.
It would also be desirable to provide a smoke vent system while substantially reducing the incidence/frequency of leaks occurring about such smoke vents, as well as reducing or eliminating the incidence/frequency of condensate accumulation inside the building in the areas of such smoke vents.
It would further be desirable to provide a support system, suitable for supporting any of a variety of roof loads, up to the load-bearing capacity of the metal panel roof while substantially controlling the tendency of the roof to leak about such support systems, as well as reducing or eliminating the incidence/frequency of condensate accumulation in the areas of such support systems.
It would be further desirable to provide thermal break structure which interrupts the path of travel of thermal energy otherwise entering the building through the skylight or smoke vent structure.